To Comrade Stalin with the request to circulate it
(without reproducing, in the interests of keeping the polemic confidential)
to members of the Politburo and Comrade Tsyurupa (but with each person's written receipt
on the document itself, noting when it was read).
I apologize for the lateness of my reply, caused by fussing about extracting a bullet.

Comrade Rykov's remarks are "critical," but indefinite and do not require an answer.

Comrade Tomsky's remark about bonuses I consider incorrect. The collapse of the trade-union bonus system, which has degenerated, according to Comrade Tomsky, into "plundering the state," must compel us to work more persistently at studying and improving the methods of applying the bonus system, and certainly not lead us to abandon it.

Comrade Trotsky's remarks are partly also indefinite (for example, the "misgivings" in § 4) and do not require an answer, and are partly a renewal of our old disagreements with Comrade Trotsky, which have been observed repeatedly in the Politburo. I shall answer him briefly on two main points: a) the Rabkrin and b) Gosplan.

a) Regarding the Rabkrin, Comrade Trotsky is fundamentally wrong. Given our desperate "departmentalism" even among the best Communists, given the low level of officials, given the intrigue within departments (worse than any Rabkrin intrigue), we cannot do without the Rabkrin at present. Work on it

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